Why do we dream?

Ancient Egyptians wrote a book listing over a hundred common dreams and their meaning. And since then we haven’t stopped searching for the answer, why do we dream?. After a lot of scientific research, we still don’t have any definite answers. But we have some exciting theories:

1-We dream to fulfill our wishes

Sigmund Freud proposed that our dreams including our nightmares are a collection of images from our daily conscious lives.

They also have a symbolic meaning which relates to the fulfillment of our subconscious wishes.

Freud theorized that everything we remember when we wake up from a dream is a symbolic representation of our unconscious mind and psychological issues.

If we resolve its content, we can understand our unconscious wishes.

2-We dream to remember

Sleeping is good but dreaming while sleeping is better regarding mental performance.

Researchers theorize that specific memory processes can happen only when we are asleep.

3-We dream to forget

There are about 1000 trillion neural connections within the architecture of our brain.

You create neural connection continually as you do something.

Your neocortex dumps the unnecessary neural connections while you are sleeping.

This is a unique process, which results in your dreams. Without this process, your brain could be fill by useless connections.

Also, unnecessary thoughts could disrupt the necessary thinking you need to do while you can awake.

4-We dream to keep our brain working

The continual-activation theory proposes that dreams result from your brains need to consolidate and create long-term memories to function correctly.

So, when you are asleep your brain automatically triggers the generation of data from its memory storages. Which appears to you in the form of the thoughts and feelings you experience in your dreams.